“These animals are my life,” the third-generation trainer said last week in a phone interview. “They’re the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed.”

The circus is currently set up at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, with performances scheduled through May 3. It opened Wednesday night, and seven shows remain in the Rochester visit.

As well as Vidbel’s animal act, “Over the Top” includes motorcycle acts; the Kassaev Cossacks trick riding and dressage act; Chinese acrobats; a pack of Bengal tigers; and several clowns, including Tom Dougherty, “Clown Eccentric,” who describes his style as improvisational and “a bit edgy” — to name just a few. Taking his second tour of duty as ringmaster is Chuck Wagner, a longtime veteran of film, Broadway and television. (Remember the short-lived 1980s sci-fi show “Automan?” That was Wagner.)

Vidbel was born into the circus and animal-training life. Her grandparents were animal trainers who actually met at the Ringling Brothers circus in the 1950s, she said. Her grandmother Joyce was a dancer; her grandfather Al handled the elephants. The oldest, along with her twin sister Susan, of seven children, Jenny would follow her grandfather in the barn to help tend the elephants; by age 6, she and Susan (now an aerialist) were traveling across the United States presenting the family’s three elephants. By age 7, Jenny had trained her first pony. And by age 11, in 1986, she was presenting her liberty pony act in the one-ring show her grandparents had launched in 1984, Vidbel’s Old Tyme Circus.

The family’s circus gave its last performance in 2004. Since then, Jenny Vidbel has been developing her barnyard act, which she’ll perform in the 138th edition of the show, which includes a “liberty act” involving 12 Welsh ponies and an Arabian stallion — “liberty” meaning “they’re at liberty to do whatever they want,” she said. “I’m not riding them, they don’t have ropes on them — they’re free in the ring. Hopefully, they do whatever I ask them to do.”

In large part, that’s what an animal trainer’s job comes down to, Vidbel said: knowing the animals, and what their inclinations and capacities are, and working to reinforce them. “That’s the whole idea of training animals — examining and spending time with each animal, finding out what they want to do, so everyone’s happy,” she said — and thus she takes criticisms of animal acts personally.

A group representing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had set up in Rochester last week for a demonstration, including a “tiger” and “trainer” switching places in and out of a cage. PETA has long held that Ringling and other circuses treat animals inhumanely.

Vidbel’s take: “Just come and see the show — it’s really obvious how well the animals are taken care of and how happy they are.”

Vidbel’s day starts early, frequently around 3 a.m. or thereabouts. “It’s a long day, let me tell you,” she said. “I get up in the morning and go straight to my animal trailer, and check everyone out.”

The regular rituals include feeding and watering all the animals, washing the ponies, grooming the dogs — “polishing the quills on the porcupine, that sort of thing; just primping everyone,” she said. Sometimes there’ll be a practice, if the day before was spent on the road. Then there are the shows — frequently two a day (there’ll be three on Saturday) — and rewarding and resting the animals after each show.

Modern circuses do have the comforts of home, for the most part, which Vidbel says many people don’t realize — and the kids get their schooling. As a child of the circus and the road, she said circus kids get the advantage of exposure to different languages, cultures and surroundings.

“Starting around five or six years old, you know how to read a map!” she said. “You know where you’re going and how to get there.”

If you go:
WHAT: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

WHEN: Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, May 2, at 11:30 a.m., 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, May 3, at 1 and 5 p.m.

WHERE: Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, Court and Exchange streets, Rochester

TICKETS: Range from $13 to $70, available via Ticketmaster

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